Why are subwoofers so polarizing?

Bo1972 is utterly full of crap in his ridiculously overstated comments regarding the myth of sub "speed" and should be ignored. Otherwise he's fine.

Balderdash...I trust my own ears far more that an avalanche of nonesense.

Than...not that.

Actually, I was correcting MY post...and I stand corrected.

So the answer to sub integration is making adjustments by listening. Who knew? Also, note that bass information differs infinitely relative to the recording, so I suggest continued listening and finding a way for easy adjusting. I have an easily accessable Chicken Head knob on my REL's level pot (no need to mess with the range pot...so the chicken head is free of range...get it?) and it is needed for the aforementioned differences. Not much, not aleays, but needed. If you don't think you need to adjust a sub, it's either run at very low level or you don't mind Peter Washington's hotly mixed double bass knocking the paintings off the wall and prompting the neighbor to come over to shoot you (this may even be legal in Florida). A friend just bought a digital room correction gizmo and likes it but noticed he has to turn his sub up when using the gizmo, but then he's not a very mixing intuitive...this (clinically known as Knob Turner Syndrome) issue could be common among many and goes far to explain why some people can't adjust audio parameters easily, and explains why I'm overpaid to mix live music.

I think digital room correction devices are like asking a robot to select my food. I don't trust 'em, but that's just me.

Hipper live sound companies often use an Ipad or some such wireless thing to mix from wherever they need to in a venue, which could explain the lack of bodies at "the board"...sneaky. I am always mystified by inexcusably bad live sound, and I think it's due to idiocy and lack of supervision.

I haven't tried room correction because the room my hifi occupies doesn't need it, for me less is better (my dual mono preamp has source, level, and muting...that's it), and I don't trust robots. The room has plenty of furniture and a padded large rug, an angled tall ceiling, windows that are far enough away to obviate reflections, and any standing wave bass issues are nowhere near my listening spot. The main speakers sit on chopping blocks with vibrapods under them to keep the wood floor from adding back any pesky resonance (an experiment that worked) and my only adjustment is a tiny bass level tweak when I think it's called for (the front firing sub doesn't sit on anything but small floor scatch preventing felt pads and the vibrapods keep it from polluting the mains...at least in theory, and it sounds great)...like with very heavy bass lines that get in the way, or when cranking the thing up a bit. Otherwise it's a sweet sounding and accurate system, and I like a little "room tone" in there...makes it sound more alive.

I have heard that Robot Love can be the most rewarding part of the Synthetic Arts.